Never Looking Back
by Reese123
Summary: Hera does something that Zeus would have never expected. Rated T, for suggestive content.


Zeus was at Mount Olympus, thinking of that fine girl he met that very afternoon, with brown curly hair and blue eyes. They had hit it off quite...well, and Zeus had taken her to his apartment. Honestly, the only good thing that upstart Jackson did was call off the oath. It had been a while since Zeus had really had some fun.

"Zeus." A steely voice pierced his thoughts, and he saw Hera standing in front of him. _Oh no. Had she found out? _But...no, that wasn't it. Her eyes weren't angry, like usual; they were pained, and Zeus felt a stab of guilt.

"Yes, Hera?"

"I'm calling it off."

Calling what off? Zeus raced through the list of parties they had to attend in the next month, but none of them seemed right. Aphrodite's love fest, perhaps?

"Darling, we have to go to Aphrodite's party. She'll curse-"

"Don't call me that, Zeus. And it's not about her little party. She's cursed me already." Wow, Hera was seriously mad. And what did she mean by "cursed me already"? Women, so hard to understand. But Zeus decided that this was too much to take from his wife.

"I am your husband and master. Stop misbehaving and tell me what's wrong."

"Not anymore, you moronic idiot! Our marriage is what is wrong. I can't take your cheating, your controlling anymore. I am not your pawn. I am getting a divorce."

For once, Zeus was speechless.

"Excuse me? You're the goddess of marriage. I'm the king of the gods. You can't just divorce me. And we've been going to those counseling sessions, we can try to-"

"No." Hera's voice was calm, but steely. "I don't love you. I never have. You abducted me and forced me to marry you! And you've had so many affairs. Do you have any idea how painful it's been? Being alone at night for thousands of years, knowing you were off with some other woman, having fun. And all your bastard children are Olympians now. I've got a divorce contract, dipped in the River Styx. Sign it, and I will finally be free."

"Do you know what this will do to my image?" Zeus roared.

"I don't care about your image, for gods' sake! You can go be happy with your other million women, and I can be happy with the one whom I truly love."

"Who?"

Hera glared at Zeus. "Please. I'm not that stupid. You'll pulverize him, like you did with Maria di Angelo."

Zeus looked at his feet. All of his mistakes seemed to come flooding into his brain, taunting him. "Give me the contract."

Hera smirked, and gave him the piece of paper, with a pen. He signed, and the paper glowed.

"Promise you will never harm the one I love."

"And why should I do that?"

"Because if you do anything to touch him, I swear, Zeus, you will feel the wrath of Hera." The sky suddenly darkened, and Zeus, for the first time, really felt Hera's power.

"I promise, on the River Styx, that I shall never harm or kill the beloved of Hera." Lightning crackled, and the deal was done.

Hera nodded curtly. "Thank you." She turned and walked away.

"Wait!" Hera turned, and saw Zeus looking at her quizzically.

"You never did tell me who he was."

Hera's eyes softened, and the corners of her mouth turned upwards. "His name is Isaac Bareton. He's 35. He's a cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins, and he's doing amazing work. The first time we met was at Broadway. Both of us were watching Cinderella. I told him about...me, and you, and the Olympians. But he still loved me, you know? No one's ever loved me like that."

Zeus nodded slowly, in thought. "Oh, and Zeus? I have one request. Make me a mortal again. I want to grow old with Isaac, die with him. And maybe I'll reach Elysium with him too."

Hera didn't notice that Zeus' eyes grew old, for only a second. He nodded imperceptibly, and chanted an incantation. Hera was enveloped in a flash of golden light.

"I'm mortal," she whispered. She had become a 34-year old woman, and Zeus was taken away by her beauty.

"You are a professor of Gender Studies at Columbia University," he said at last. "Since you were, you know, the goddess of marriage. I thought you might like that."

Hera's eyes shining, she nodded at Zeus. "Thank you," she said. "And I hope you'll be happy too, brother. Even if we are not married anymore, we will always be bonded by our blood."

"You are always welcome here on Olympus," he declared. "You are an Olympian forever, Hera. Nothing can change that. Nothing will change that."

He watched Hera take the elevator to the lobby of the Empire State Building, never looking back.

"I've always loved you, Hera," he whispered. "Every woman I've dated, was to make you jealous. Because you never said I love you, my queen. And the habit just became too much to bear, you know? But I wish that I could have said I love you. Just once."


End file.
